


of sugar and poison

by Anonymous



Category: CLC (Band)
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Cake, Gen, Minor Violence, also slightly far future au, this started out as a six of crows au and then it spiraled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21995872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: a leader. an acrobat. a healer. a chemist. a thief. a getaway driver. a baker.an impossible heist.-or: sorn gets stabbed. it leads to something more.
Relationships: implied possible future sornhee, yeeun/seungyeon if u squint a Lot
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29
Collections: AML's Holiday Fic Exchange 2019





	of sugar and poison

**Author's Note:**

  * For [girltalk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/girltalk/gifts).



> i really hope my recipient (and everyone else) enjoys this!! it got away with me a bit in length haha
> 
> links lead to pictures of whatever is referenced

Sorn runs away from home to New Seoul when she’s nineteen.

-

The girl is one of her regular customers. Sorn doesn’t know her name, but she admires the girl’s bangs, the way she smiles. She hopes the cinnamon rolls and black coffees make the girl’s day better the way the girl’s frequent tips and excessive  _ thank you _ s make Sorn’s. She wants to wonder where the girl gets the money to buy a cake every month, why she needs a cake every month, why her face is round and filled with sunshine when all the people Sorn sees have sharp edges in the smiles they don’t really mean. But it’s not worth losing a customer, so she doesn’t ask.

She just gets to find out in the worst way possible.

The girl is paying for today’s snack, a coffee and a croissant. “Thank you,” she says. She looks a little more tired today, a little more rushed- usually she requests for the snack to be heated up, but not today. Nevertheless, she drops a generous tip into the jar next to the register.

Sorn is about to smile back and say of course, have a nice day, but the door suddenly bangs open. She sees her customers scatter, and she automatically reaches for the knife below the counter. Robberies aren’t uncommon, and Sorn usually has to just give them what they want- money, but one memorable time the thief had requested a cake. But this person isn’t a robber. “OH SEUNGHEE!” they bellow. “Where are you?”

Using all the gentleness she can muster, Sorn starts, “I don’t know a Seunghee, I’m sorry. Maybe you have the-”

“Right here,” says the girl, Sorn’s usual, standing up from where she’d been crouching in case of a shot. She doesn’t look quite so sunshiney now with her voice lowered and her eyes flashing. “What do you want?”

The intruder slams a fist against a table. Sorn winces as the marble cracks audibly. “The eastern docks belong to the Five. You did not have permission to take supplies from a ship landing there.”

Apparently-Seunghee sighs. “First of all, there aren’t even five of you. Get a new name. Second of all, my second was sick. I would have let you take medicine from our docks if you needed it.”

The intruder snarls, which Sorn takes as her cue to speak up. Most of the customers have gone; she’s not really sure why she remains. Maybe she’s used to disaster, maybe shock prevents her from running. Who knows. “If you have business with her, I’d like to request that you take it elsewhere. This store is neutral and we would prefer for there to be no violence.” Her voice cracks as the intruder lifts a gun from what seemed like nowhere.

“Don’t protect Seunghee,” he snaps. “Stay out of this and let me kill her.”

“No,” says Sorn, because someone dying on her shift is not something she wants on her resume. She’d continue, but the intruder lifts the gun and shoots Seunghee.

Well. He tries to, anyway. It’s almost instinct, the way Sorn’s mind reaches for the bag of flour behind her and sends it flying, scattering white particles into the intruder’s eyes just as he pulls the trigger. The shot misses; by the time the dust clears, Seunghee is nowhere to be seen.

“I told you to stay out of it, witch,” spits the intruder, frighteningly close. He’d dropped the gun and was now carrying a knife- Sorn had lost hers in the chaos. 

That’s a name Sorn hasn’t heard in a while; she raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t. This is a peaceful establishment. What are you going to do about it?”

He stabs her in the stomach. If Sorn is being perfectly honest, she’d been asking for it. It still comes as a surprise, and all she manages to do is let out a strangled “oh,” slumping over the counter.

Faintly, she sees Seunghee pick up the abandoned gun and shoot him, three times ( _ just to be sure,  _ Sorn thinks, feverish) and then come over to her. “Oh, dear,” is the last thing she hears before the world goes black.

-

When Sorn wakes up, she’s in a bed that is very much not hers. She’s also not dead, which comes as a bit of a shock.

Blinking, she lets her eyes adjust to the room. It’s nice, nicer than her little apartment- there are plaid curtains on the windows and an old, scorched leather couch. The bed itself is soft, almost overwhelmingly so, and Sorn doesn’t ever want to leave.

But also she’s in a strange room and she has no idea what’s going on, so staying in bed probably wouldn’t be the best idea. 

She pulls herself to her feet and looks down at her stomach. There’s a bandage, but it’s not stained with blood, and she doesn’t  _ feel  _ like there’s a giant hole in her body. Weird.

Sorn opens the door, only to collide with a strange girl, carrying a tray with waffles on it. “Oh!” she says. “I’m sorry, I was just going to come check on you.”

“Who are you?” Sorn asks. “And where am I?” She’s aware that this is rather cliche and that these people probably saved her life, but it’s a valid question.

The girl smiles. “Choi Yujin, at your service. Sorn, right?” Sorn nods, and Yujin continues. “Eat these, they’ll make you feel better. Seunghee should… probably explain to you.”

Sorn takes the waffles, mostly because if they’re trying to kill her, saving her life and then poisoning her is kind of a dumb way to go about it. “Yujin, why am I not dead?”

Yujin hesitates. “I saved you.” At Sorn’s look of confusion, she twinkles her fingers and says, “Magic. I can put flesh back together and stuff.”

“Oh,” Sorn says. “That’s cool.” 

“Really?” Yujin fidgets a little bit with the straps of her dress. “Most people scream.”

Sorn doesn’t see the point of lying when at least two other people saw her telepathically fling a bag of flour at someone. “I can do something like that too. Mostly just enhancing food.”

Yujin’s eyes widen. “I’ve never met someone else who could do that.” She looks like she’s about to say something else, but there’s a scream of ‘YUJIN!’ from outside the door, so she yells back, “I’m coming, Seungyeon!” and turns to Sorn. “I’ll see you later, I think. It was nice to meet you!” 

She whirls out the door, not shutting it behind her. Sorn sinks onto the bed and takes a tentative bite of waffle. It’s good- not amazing, but good. Someone had clearly gone to the effort of preparing them for her.

The door opens, because apparently Sorn’s not allowed any peace and quiet to think about this whole mess. It’s Sorn’s customer/probably-Seunghee, and she looks a lot more worried than usual- there’s a crease between her eyebrows, and she’s fidgeting with a cup of tea. “Yujin said you were awake?”

“Yes,” Sorn says, as if clarification was needed. “Hi. What’s going on?”

Seunghee produces a chair from behind the door and sits down. “Well, you saved my life. I think. I’m also relatively sure that your employers think you’re dead.”

“Oh,” Sorn mutters through another bite of waffle. “Am I fired?”

Seunghee winces. “Also that, probably. Which is sort of why you’re here. I run a sort of… organization in the city- Crystal Clear, CLC for short. We make money by controlling some ports, businesses like Yujin’s clinic, and also occasionally by stealing from other organizations.”

“So you’re a gang.”

“Basically, yeah,” Seunghee mutters. “We’re not evil, though. We do some good stuff.”

Sorn doesn’t feel as put off as she should. It’s hard to see Seunghee and Yujin as evil- hell, it’s hard to see them as anything other than friendly. She knows not to judge by appearances, but nothing in her gut is telling her to stay away. “Like what?”

“Get people medicine,” Seunghee says, instantly brightening. She’s proud of herself, and it shows- Sorn thinks it’s kind of cute. “Steal from the rich. Give people shelter. Et cetera.” She hesitates. “And, uh… given that one of our operatives vetted you and didn’t find anything suspicious, everyone thinks you’re dead, and you have some useful skills… we were maybe wondering if you wanted a job? Here. It would pay well, and there’s shelter, and we’re nice. I think.”

The word  _ cute  _ pops to Sorn’s mind again. “I can’t kill people. Or, like… steal from the rich. Although I think that’s a noble idea.”

“You can bake,” Seunghee says, “really well. Yujin is mostly in charge of food now, and she’s not bad at it, but she’s got other jobs. We’d hire you for that.”

Sorn considers. “Really? What’s the history of cooks getting murdered in this organization?”

“I don’t know,” Seunghee says, smiling. “We’ve never had one before.”

“Okay,” says Sorn before she can think about it much. “Okay. I’m in.”

-

Sorn does not regret her spontaneous decision.

She doesn’t need to cook for everyone all the time, she learns- just Seunghee and her inner circle, who are all shockingly welcoming. Yujin teaches her how to harness whatever magic she has, and she finds herself imbuing all kinds of foods with energy boosts or caffeine or whatever is necessary. (Seunghee only asks her for something offensive once once; when Sorn asks who it’s for, Seunghee shows her the picture of some businessman or another, says he’s known to be corrupt and prejudiced. Sorn gladly mixes in the sleeping powder, then proceeds to wonder why she cares as little as she does.)

Sorn learns other things, too. For example: Oh Seunghee is actually kind of horrible at running a gang. The house where Sorn spends most of her time is for the people who work for her, but her workplace is a hotel that lets nearly everyone in, even though she’s been told multiple times that it would be more effective to have a fixed price. Sorn sees her come back from business deals with a glimmer of ferocity sometimes, but far more prominent are the times when Seunghee scolds her underlings/friends for pulling some prank or another, laughing in the same breath. Sorn never intended to befriend a crime lord, but Seunghee is easily the friendliest crime lord she’s ever heard of, and it’s not that hard.

Seungyeon is their resident spy. She takes a while to warm up to Sorn, mostly due to the fact that she’s out of the house frequently and the fact that Seungyeon’s not very good with strangers. One day, she ducks shyly into the kitchen and admits that she’s been tired lately, asking Sorn for something energy-boosting so she doesn’t fall off a ledge, which Sorn gladly provides. After that, they become closer; Seungyeon tries to teach Sorn basic parkour, and Sorn tries to teach Seungyeon how to bake. They both conclude that they’re best off sticking to what they know (with some threats from Yujin) after Sorn’s second broken arm and the third scorch mark in the kitchen.

Yujin, the first person Sorn had met and the resident healer, turns out to be exactly as bubbly as she’d first seemed. They bond over a shared confusion around magic and a shared desire to use said magic for the greater good. Yujin frequently tries to prank the other girls, especially Seunghee, and while Sorn refuses to explicitly help her, she also refuses to rat Yujin out. She thinks they’re funny, and even pretends not to notice Yujin slipping a laxative into Eunbin’s cake one day. (Sorn regrets this later when her kitchen becomes a battleground for tainted desserts.) 

Eunbin is the chemist. She’s younger than everyone else, but makes up for it with a spark of humor and determination unmatched by anyone else. She frequently emerges from her room with burnt eyebrows, but never with a frown. Sorn refuses to let her enter the kitchen after she accidentally blows up a casserole, but she’s happy to slip Eunbin a cookie or two after a day where she barely emerges from her room- or even every day. (The only problem with Eunbin is that she calls both Sorn and Seunghee mom, and after Elkie interjects, curiously, “Are they  _ married _ moms though?” one day, she refuses to stop- causing both Sorn and Seunghee to blush mildly.)

Elkie is… well, Sorn’s not sure what she’s supposed to be. Possibly a second-in-command, possibly an interrogation device, possibly a sharpshooter. She’s obvious with all of her feelings, flirts with nearly everyone (excepting Eunbin, who always threatens to explode her collection of throwing knives, and Seunghee, who’s asked her to stop) and can’t say a word that’s not teasing in some way. Sorn lets her steal cupcakes, but she also lets Eunbin put sleeping powder in some of the cupcakes when Elkie’s done nothing but research and stand guard all day- and is unlikely to prioritize sleep over work.

Life is chaotic, but it’s peaceful.

Until one day, Seunghee calls them all in for a meeting.

-

Sorn sets a tray of tea down on the dining room table. Seunghee probably hadn’t meant to call her here for something other than serving them, she realizes. The other five are sitting in their usual chairs- Seunghee at the head with Seungyeon and Elkie on either side of her, Eunbin fiddling with something in a chair next to Seungyeon and Yujin reviewing some notes next to Elkie. There’s an empty chair at the foot of the table that makes Sorn wonder who else they’d invited. “Good luck,” she says, preparing to go back to the kitchen. Seunghee will tell her about it later. (It’s their nightly routine, Seunghee preparing a cup of tea for Sorn and Sorn digging up some extra cookies for Seunghee. They lean against each other and talk about the day, and Sorn knows she’s fallen asleep in Seunghee’s arms at least once.) 

“No, stay,” Seunghee says now, surprising her. “I invited you too.” 

Yujin gestures to the empty chair with a smile; Sorn’s surprised, but sits down anyway. “What’s this about?”

Seunghee takes a deep breath. She seems to be preparing to say something, but Eunbin gets there first. With all the tact of a bulldozer, she says, “We’re planning a heist.”

“We’re… what?” Yujin blinks, looking up from the notes. “Why?”

Seunghee shushes Eunbin before she can say anything more. “To put it lightly, we’re in… a bit of trouble. Not financially, but legally, I guess; one of the biggest businesses in the city wants to enact a census. For… people with magic.”

Sorn inhales sharply, finally listening. “Oh.”

Seunghee nods grimly. “They propose that any magic users involved in businesses that could be a threat to theirs- not in those exact words, of course- should be, ah, neutralized. It’s said they’re preparing a machine that transfers the power to a potion of sorts-”

“Which they could then use to give themselves more power,” Yujin interjects darkly. “I get it. What are we doing about it?”

Seungyeon takes this as her cue to speak, and pulls a piece of paper out of nowhere. “Cube Corporation is renowned for being a nearly impenetrable building. The entrances to their development labs can only be accessed by someone who’s been there before, because it’s nearly impossible for anyone else to find them.” She points to a picture on the paper. It’s a young woman, about their age, with short, ragged black hair and a fierce glint in her eyes. Sorn feels like she’s seen her before, but she can’t place exactly where. “This is Jang Yeeun. She’s the daughter of a former scientist at Cube, who had been fired years back for protesting their unethical policies. The scientist is now long dead, but she entrusted all her secrets to her daughter. Unfortunately for us, Jang Yeeun is also in prison.” Seungyeon pauses to let her words sink in, and then delivers the final blow. “For repeated theft.”

Yujin is scribbling on the back of her notes. “So we break her out. And then what?”

Eunbin takes over. “And then we break the machine. Erase our names from the records.”

Elkie slams a fist onto the table. “Kill Cube. Win the war.”

“Maybe not that,” Sorn says hesitantly; Elkie laughs. “How can I help?”

Seunghee looks at her with something in her eyes Sorn can’t quite place. “Well, the prison has visiting hours…”   
-

Sorn sits in the lobby of the prison, tapping her foot nervously. She’s holding a tray of warm muffins, and her stomach rumbles faintly.  _ Not for you,  _ she reminds herself. 

The person in charge of the waiting room coughs. “ [ Lee Simyeong ](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRZQjO92lENA0xA8l2c9LVhglRv6uotO2LeUHxvqK_yVo8A81uG) ?” 

Sorn stands up after only a second of thought. This is her fake name, although anyone with eyes can tell she wasn’t born anywhere where they would name people Lee Simyeong- but anyone with eyes will be too distracted by the dust and dirt of the prison to give it a second thought. “Yes?”

The clerk writes something down. “Who are you here to visit?”

“Jang Yeeun, sir,” Sorn says with as much deference as she can muster- which isn’t very much, admittedly. Humility has never come naturally to her. “Prisoner #24601.”

The clerk seems alarmed. “Are you sure, miss?”

“Yes,” Sorn says, abandoning a submissive pretense for an imperious one. “I can handle myself, sir.”

The clerk, muttering something to himself, hands her a pass. “Show this to the guard. They’ll escort you to her cell.”

Sorn follows his instructions, and as the guard shepherds her through the grimy halls, she looks around. Most of the cells are bare, and most of the people inside are slumped in their cells and don’t even look up to see her. When she arrives at Yeeun’s cell, there’s a noticeable difference- Yeeun has decorated her cell in red fabric and is writing something down on a cushion in the corner. Her face is similarly decorated in red, but this red is a pattern of bruises and bandages. Sorn feels a pang of pity for her, but she knows her role- and where does she know Yeeun from? She knows she’s seen her before. The guard opens the cell door. “You have ten minutes.”

Sorn leaps onto a startled Yeeun. “Oh, Yen, I missed you,” she blubbers (unconvincingly; Sorn’s never been the best liar), wrapping her arms around the taller girl. She feels Yeeun stiffen, but catch on quickly; she wraps her arms around Sorn in response and starts making some strange noises that could possibly be interpreted as sobbing if you were particularly stupid. Once Sorn sees the guard look away, she leans down and whispers into Yeeun’s ear, “Play along. I’m breaking you out.” Yeeun nods, imperceptibly; Sorn pulls away and offers her the muffins. “I baked for you! You must be so hungry in here,” she says, with slightly more enthusiasm. 

Seven minutes.

Yeeun finally takes a muffin. “I am, thank you,” she says flatly, taking a bite. Sorn suspects she’s not the best liar either. “These are delicious,” she adds, finishing the muffin; this time it sounds like she actually means it. 

“Good,” Sorn says. She hasn’t planned for this conversation. “I, uh… how’s life?” 

“It’s-” Yeeun starts, clearly also confused. “It’s-”  _ Three, two, one, _ Sorn quietly counts down. Right on time, Yeeun slumps to the floor. “Sorn,” she chokes out before losing consciousness. 

Sorn screams, with actual distress now because why the  _ fuck  _ does Yeeun know her name? “Guard, guard! She fainted! Call a doctor!”

The guard peeks in. “I thought your name was Simyeong?”

Sorn improvises. “Simyeong’s my real name. Sorn’s her nickname for me.”

The guard shrugs. “Should I call the doctor or is this normal?”

“It’s not normal,” Sorn says, “ _ please _ call a doctor.”

“Okay,” says the guard. “Doctor! Doctor!”

Exactly on cue, Yujin and Seungyeon rush through the halls wearing doctor masks and carrying a stretcher. Yujin winks at Sorn and kneels next to Yeeun, muttering something like  _ oh dear, oh dear _ , making a big show of checking Yeeun’s pulse. “She’s….” Yujin declares dramatically; you could hear a pin drop in the resulting silence. “...dead. It might have been a seizure.” Seungyeon rolls her eyes to Sorn in the background. The drama really wasn’t necessary. 

The guard seems overwhelmed. Maybe he’s new. “I, uh… what should-”

He’s cut off by the sound of a large boom and the resulting aftershocks. Smoke wafts through the halls, and the guard slumps, unconscious. Sorn, Yujin, and Seungyeon look at each other, expecting the same thing to happen to them, but it doesn’t. The smoke hadn’t been part of the plan- Sorn suspects Eunbin had just been bored with the instructions to create “a normal bomb”.    
Seungyeon recovers first. “Okay, I don’t know what that was, but it’s time to go.”

“Where?” Sorn says, uncertain. “The plan was-”

“Fuck the plan,” Yujin snaps; she doesn’t do too well in panic. “It’s time to run.” She hoists Yeeun onto the stretcher and gently touches the bruises on her face to magically deepen them, adding some on her neck as well, until she looks badly hurt. Seungyeon sighs and picks up the other end of the stretcher, and they run after the trail of the smoke (which Sorn thinks is an incredibly stupid idea, but whatever) until they get to a gaping hole in the wall of the prison. There are two boats outside; a funeral barge and a tiny rowboat speeding away into the distance. At least this part of the plan has worked well- as heroic as Eunbin can be, she’d known not to stick around after the explosion. 

Elkie waves from the barge. “Get in, fuckers!” 

“You’re supposed to be gloomy-” Seungyeon starts, exhausted, but sighed. “Never mind. Come on.” Still in their doctor personas, Seungyeon and Yujin explain to the few still-conscious guards that ‘she’s dead, we’ve got to take her out’ and load the stretcher with Yeeun’s not-body onto the boat.

Sorn pretends to struggle against Yujin’s arms as she’s being hauled away. Yujin slips a tiny knife into her pocket- for self-defense, probably- and says, “Miss, you can’t stay with her. There’s nothing we can do.”

Maybe Sorn’s starting to enjoy the drama, too, because she fake-sobs and says, “The boat’s empty! I’m good as dead anyway, I just want to see her final resting place.”

Yujin pretends to give in. “Fine, fine. Miss, if you want a new girlfriend now that she’s dead-”

Sorn’s trying not to laugh- what did Elkie teach Yujin, anyway? and lets out a scream instead. “Get off!” 

“Would you like to-” Yujin starts; Seungyeon clamps a hand over her mouth. The guards are watching. 

Sorn takes the distraction to sprint for the boat and sit down next to Elkie, who promptly presses the pedal and they zoom away. “What the hell was that explosion?”

Elkie shrugs. “You’ll have to ask Eunbin. She won’t wake up anytime soon, right?”

“Right,” Sorn confirms. “Are we heading back?”

“You’re going with Eunbin,” Elkie says, “once we catch up to her. I’ll be taking Yeeun to the morgue, where I’ll meet Yujin and swap her out for an actual body. Then we’ll all meet at home and regroup.”

She pauses. “Are you considering Yujin’s offer? Because I bet I could beat it.” 

Sorn hits her.

-

When Sorn meets up with Eunbin, the boat is pointedly silent for a solid minute before Eunbin mutters, “I’m sorry, mom.” 

Sorn lets the  _ mom  _ go for now. “Sorry for what?”

“I’m sorry for disrupting the plan and knocking out half the guards,” Eunbin says in a rush, “and also drugging all of you so you’d be immune to the smoke.”

“You did-” Sorn shakes her head. “Never mind. It worked, but you’re going to be in trouble when we get back. Not from me- I thought it was kind of brilliant.”

Eunbin laughs. “I’m always brilliant, whether or not people want to appreciate my genius.” A pause. “Don’t tell Seunghee I said that.”

“If you stop calling us both mom, sure,” Sorn says.

Eunbin makes a cute little frown. “You are my mom, though. And you two are so cute together.”

Sorn is seriously reconsidering her choice in friends.

(When they get home, Eunbin gets the talking to of a lifetime, but not before Seunghee hugs Sorn- despite all the dirt and grime- and whispers “I’m glad you’re back,” into her ear. It gives her a funny fizzy feeling- maybe she doesn’t mind being called mom that much.)

-

Yeeun does not wake up quietly.

In the middle of the night, Sorn awakes to a scream. She jumps from her bed, heart pounding, and rushes to the door. The halls are much emptier at night, and she doesn’t know if anyone else has woken up. Yeeun is in Seungyeon’s room, mostly because Seungyeon can survive someone being violently confused at her in the middle of the night. There’s a rustling inside, and Sorn presses her ear to the door. At least Seungyeon, who has supernatural hearing, knows she’s there, but she doesn’t call Sorn in.

“Where am I? Who are you?” A pause. “Why the  _ fuck _ am I blonde?”

Sorn can feel Seungyeon’s eyebrow raise through the door. “A house, my name is Seungyeon, that was not my decision. Personally, I think you would look better a redhead.”

Yeeun snorts. “I don’t think that’s the most important question here.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Baker girl was breaking me out,” Yeeun says thoughtfully, “and she fed me muffins. Then I passed out. Was it the muffins?”

“It was the muffins,” Seungyeon agrees. “The plan was that you’d pass out, Sorn would call for the doctor, and a friend of mine and I would declare you dead and deepen your bruises to make it look like someone had strangled you. Your ‘body’ would be carried out on the funeral barge and into a morgue, where my friend dyed your hair and fixed your bruises so you wouldn’t be recognizable and brought you back.”

“I take it the plan didn’t work?” Yeeun says tentatively. “I… don’t know any of you. Except for baker girl, but why and how would she break me out?”

“How do you know Sorn?” Seungyeon asks. “She’s never mentioned you.”

“She works at a bakery, right? I used to… steal stuff. Not money, just  [ bread ](https://bdn-data.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2013/01/Gray-Squirrel1-600x450.jpg) and cake for food. She’d usually let me get away with it, but then one day I got caught.”

Sorn gasps, then quickly muffles it- she remembers Yeeun now. She’d always apologized for stealing and after a while Sorn had a cake or two set aside just in case she dropped by- rather selfishly, because she’d only be in trouble for helping a thief who was clearly just hungry if she took the food from the bakery’s stock. She’d stopped showing up after a while, and Sorn realizes that she must have been arrested. She hadn’t recognized Yeeun with the short hair.

Seungyeon laughs, and Yeeun adds, “What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just-” Seungyeon giggles again before coming to her senses. “We thought you were a sort of master thief or something helpful. I guess Sorn’s cake is worth stealing, though.”

Yeeun starts to laugh, too. Sorn can tell that Seungyeon puts her at ease, and she smiles to herself. “What did you want me for, a heist?”

Seungyeon abruptly stops laughing. “I, uh… Kind of?” She’s usually so confident, and Sorn wonders why she sounds so nervous now. “It’s… you remember Cube, right?”

Yeeun, too, stops laughing. She sounds guarded now. “Yes. Why?”

Seungyeon fidgets with something. “They, uh, have this machine. That can take magic away. And we don’t want them to have it, so-”

Yeeun cuts her off. “And you’re going to use it for your enemies? To give yourself more power? You can’t make me help you with that.”

“Oh, no,” Seungyeon clarifies. “We’re destroying it- and a few of the people here have magic, they’d be in danger, not to mention, like, the population at large. Especially because Cube’s proposing a census-”

Yeeun audibly exhales. “Oh. That’s… that’s good. I wouldn’t- I hate Cube. I wouldn’t mind helping you with that.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah,” Yeeun agrees. There’s a beat of silence, then: “Is my mother-”

“No,” Seungyeon says softly. “I’m sorry.”

Yeeun doesn’t sound sad, particularly. “I expected as much.”

-

Yeeun blends in easily. She mostly sticks to Seungyeon, but she befriends Sorn, too- after telling her flatly that she didn’t appreciate the drugging- and helps Eunbin explode things sometimes. Sorn feels like they’re a complete team now, but she’s still not ready to actually… watch her friends perform the heist. 

Probably hence why she’s currently stress-baking in the kitchen.

Seunghee slips into the kitchen and taps her on the shoulder. She jumps and drops an egg; Seunghee catches it before it hits the floor. “We’re having another meeting,” she says, handing Sorn the egg. “Are you okay?”

Sorn shrugs weakly. “Relatively. Do I need to be there?”

Seunghee hesitates. “Not technically. But I… want you there.”

“Oh.”

Seunghee gives her a weak smile. “Are you okay?”

Sorn doesn’t want to lie, but she does and says, “I’m fine.” She follows Seunghee out to the dining room, where everyone is seated in their usual ominous formation. “What are we discussing?”

“Our plan,” Yeeun says. She’s peering over Seungyeon’s shoulder at illegible blueprints. “Who wrote these?”

“Me,” Elkie says indignantly. “Is my handwriting bad?”

“Yes,” Eunbin says. “Anyway. Back to the plan.”

Seungyeon coughs. “Right. The plan. There’s going to be a party in three weeks. That’s when-”

“Won’t there be extra guards then?” Yujin asks, fiddling with something in her hands.

Seungyeon, who looks deeply irritated at the interruption, sighs. “Yes. What I was  _ going _ to say is that most of the guards are going to try to sneak away to the party and will therefore be distracted. The plan is that I will sneak in a day before and-”

“Where did we even get those blueprints?” Elkie asks. “Aren’t those classified?”

Seungyeon looks two seconds away from snapping, so Seunghee takes over. “I have my ways. In any case, Seungyeon will sneak in and create an escape route for us, then some of us, disguised as businesspeople, will create a distraction at the party while Yujin and Seungyeon trigger an explosion to destroy the machine.”

Yeeun frowns. “That’s a good plan, but it’s so simple. What if something goes wrong?”

“It won’t,” Seunghee says simply. “Even if we get caught, I have connections that can keep us out of trouble. We’ll be fine.”

Seunghee’s reassurance had only sort of helped Sorn relax. “Who are the people creating the distraction?”

“That’s undecided right now,” Seunghee starts carefully, “and it’s really up to everyone whether they want to participate, but-”

“Elkie, Eunbin, and Seunghee,” Seungyeon says bluntly. “Yeeun would be recognized, and you’re on the attendance list as a pastry chef.”

Sorn can’t fathom why she’d be helpful. “I’m just going to get you all killed.”

“Nonsense,” Seungyeon protests, “you have useful skills. If push comes to shove, you can just poison them all.”

It sounds like a joke, but Sorn’s stomach churns anyway. “I see,” she says, and stands up. “Excuse me.”

-

Seunghee finds her in her room, staring out at the city. “I’m sorry about Seungyeon. She just… doesn’t have a filter.” She pauses, and adds, “You know, you can back out if you want.”

“I’d be happy to help,” Sorn says quietly. “It’s just- I don’t want to poison people.”

“I know.”

“Did you do a background check on me?”

Seunghee’s silence is the only answer necessary; Sorn exhales. “I get it. I wouldn’t randomly trust me either.”

“You trusted me,” says Seunghee, “and I didn’t trust you. That’s not fair.”

Sorn knows it’s more complicated than that, knows that Seunghee would have had far more to lose by trusting her than vice versa, but spoken like that, it’s nothing but true.

“You trusted me,” she says slowly. “You let me in anyway.”

Seunghee leans gently on her shoulder. “You didn’t mean any harm.”

“I know.” Sorn sighs. “What can I do to help?”

-

The first phase is two days before the party. Seungyeon leaves the house at five in the morning- it’ll take at least an hour to walk to Cube, an hour longer to prepare, et cetera. Seunghee is busy with supplies, Yujin is Seungyeon’s emergency escape, Eunbin has locked herself in her room to create bombs, and Elkie is probably eating waffles somewhere. As a result, it’s just Sorn and Yeeun holed up in the living room, listening to Seungyeon’s periodic updates through a communication system Eunbin had set up.

Their radio crackles. “I’m done preparing,” Seungyeon says. “The guards on the roof are changing in ten minutes, and there should be a period of five minutes where nobody is on the roof.”

“So you have five minutes to scale a fucking building,” Yeeun says flatly. “Who came up with this plan?”

“Me,” Seungyeon says. “I’ve done worse.”

“Show-off.”

Seungyeon shrugs. “Who wants to bet I can make it in three and a half?”

Yeeun groans. “Three minutes, forty seconds. I’m counting.”

“Sorn?”

_ It’s not a joke _ , she thinks, but she just says, “Four minutes, seven seconds.”

“That’s an oddly specific number.”

“This is an oddly ridiculous bet,” Yeeun fires back.

Seungyeon hisses. “Quiet- someone’s coming around the corner.” There’s a rustle, presumably as Seungyeon hides, the sound of footsteps, and then nothing. “Okay- everything’s okay. Three minutes to go.”

“Okay,” Yeeun says, exhaling softly. “If you die, we’re not coming to your funeral.” 

“Speak for yourself,” Sorn mutters, laughing.

-

“I’m going up,” Seungyeon says through the radio. “Three, two, one… Yeeun, start the timer.”

Obediently, Yeeun clicks at her watch; there’s a scraping sound as Seungyeon, presumably, ascends. The tower is 100 meters tall; Seungyeon has five minutes (realistically, four; she has to get inside the building as well), meaning she’ll have to climb 20 meters a minute or a third of a meter per second. Seungyeon herself is about one and a third meters high, which means that-

“This is crazy,” Yeeun says, cutting Sorn off before she can calculate obsessively even further.

“There’s no way she can do that,” Sorn agrees. “That’s an impossible speed.”

“The record for speed climbing is two point seven meters per second,” Eunbin says absently, wandering into the room. “At that speed, she could make it in thirty-seven seconds.”

“Nobody’s trying to kill you in speed climbing,” Seungyeon says through the radio. Sorn checks the timer; two minutes, sixteen seconds. “Also, why do you know that?”

“That would be an interesting competition, though,” Eunbin argues, taking a cookie from the plate Sorn had left out for her. She doesn’t answer Seungyeon’s second question.

“Probably not for the competitors,” Yeeun says. 

“True.”

“I’m scared of heights,” Eunbin starts, “I could never do this. But my bet is three minutes, fifty-three seconds.”

“Well, let’s see whose weirdly specific number is closer,” Seungyeon says. The timer hits three minutes. “I’m about three-quarters of the way up.”

“Assuming you’re traveling at a constant rate-” Eunbin starts, but Yeeun claps a hand over her mouth before she can finish.

“No more math, god,  _ please _ .”

“Careful, she’ll bite you,” Seungyeon says. “I’m up- stop the timer.”

With a little yelp, Yeeun moves her hand. Sorn sees tooth marks. They’re about to check the time when an unfamiliar voice barks, “Hey! Who’s there?”

Seungyeon inhales sharply; there’s a shuffling as she tries to get to the edge of the building. “Hands up,” snarls the unfamiliar voice, “you’re under arrest.”

“You can’t legally arrest me,” Seungyeon says carefully. “You’re part of a private organization, which means-”

“We don’t care about the law here,” a new voice says. There’s a loud clank, then; silence.

Sorn checks the timer. 

Three minutes, fifty-two seconds.

-

“You should have told me,” Sorn argues. Seunghee is the one staring out the window this time, at the ominous skyscraper in the distance. “What’s the  _ point  _ in not telling me that she was going to get arrested?”

“I genuinely forgot,” Seunghee says; she sounds sad. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. Seungyeon will be fine- she swallowed lockpicks and we have some allies among the guards.”

Sorn slumps. She believes Seunghee, she really does, it’s just- “If we’re equals and you’re not some sort of boss ordering me around, you have to act like it.” She pauses. “Wait, she swallowed  _ what? _ ”

“She used to be in the circus,” Seunghee says absently, “she knows what she’s doing.” Sighing, she sits down next to Sorn. “I care about you. You know that, right? I just- I don’t want any of us to get hurt.”

“I know,” Sorn says, all the fight gone. She puts an arm around Seunghee almost automatically, and the older girl relaxes into the touch. “You take care of all of us- I know you do- and you’re so good at it. But I’m not helpless, you know.”

“I do know,” Seunghee agrees. “I’m sorry.”

She  _ means it _ , Sorn realizes. She leaves out information sometimes, sure; but she’s trying, and that’s all that matters. 

“Thank you,” she says, and leans into Seunghee a bit more. “What’s the point of having her arrested, anyway?”

“She wouldn’t have been able to stay in the building undetected,” Seunghee says. “They’ll think she’s just some kid who wanted to climb the tallest thing around, but they won’t have enough time to investigate her because of the party.”

It makes sense, Sorn reluctantly admits to herself. She has enough pride left not to tell Seunghee, though, and just hums. “Fair, I guess.” 

“You know you can back out any time, right?” Seunghee asks. “I mean- you don’t have to do anything. I just-”

Sorn cuts her off. “I want to,” she says. “I want to help you.”

Seunghee stares at her for a moment, and then she smiles. “Me too.”

-

“I can’t believe I have to wear this,” Eunbin groans, tugging at the collars of her  [ dress ](https://images.asos-media.com/products/asos-design-maxi-dress-with-batwing-sleeve-and-wrap-waist-in-satin/14345431-1-mustard?%24n_480w%24&wid=476&fit=constrain) . “It’s so tight.”

“You picked it out,” Elkie says unsympathetically,  [ admiring herself ](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1083/6796/products/product-image-836783287_1024x1024.jpg?v=1571439329) in the mirror. “And it’s what people wear at parties.”

“It’s not the dress,” Eunbin mutters. “It’s, like… the context. I can’t enjoy it the way I normally would because it’s just a costume.” 

“Become your character,” Elkie replies, twirling. “My character is beautiful, but so am I, so I guess it’s easy.”

Eunbin rolls her eyes.

“You both look fine,” Sorn offers from the corner, trying to keep the peace. 

“We look very similar,” Eunbin says, “because we’re both from Korea, we both have black hair, and people are very uncreative with fashion these days. The only things distinguishing us are our colors and the fact that Elkie is short.”

Elkie opens her mouth to retort, but she’s cut off by Seunghee’s  [ dramatic entrance ](https://n.nordstrommedia.com/ImageGallery/store/product/Zoom/10/_102402710.jpg?h=365&w=240&dpr=2&quality=45&fit=fill&fm=jpg) . Sorn suddenly feels glad that she’s just in a chef’s apron and hat, because she’d feel inadequate next to Seunghee in the dress- even though it’s in the same style as the others’, it somehow looks better on her.

Eunbin elbows her. “Stop staring,” she hisses.

“I wasn’t staring!” Sorn protests at the same time Elkie says, “Don’t elbow like that, it’ll ruin the dress.”

Seunghee just laughs. “Shall we?” 

-

Sorn watches out of the corner of her eye as Yujin bustles in with a tray of powders that confuse Sorn, even though she was the one who made them, and gets to work. With the help of the powders, which have been enchanted to change the colors of the skin they touch, Yujin’s flesh-manipulation powers can disguise them. She starts on Eunbin first- Sorn can see the younger girl’s hair twisting into curls if she squints hard enough, but even with her naked eye Eunbin’s irritated cry as Yujin unceremoniously drops powder in her eye is noticeable. “Hey!”

Yujin shrugs, remorseless. “Don’t want them recognizing you.”

“Why would they recognize me anyway?”

“Their eyes are everywhere,” Seunghee says unhelpfully. Possibly just for that, Yujin starts on Seunghee next, although Seunghee complains noticeably less.

After Elkie groans for a solid five minutes about her new face structure, Yujin turns to Sorn. “We’re going to have to do you, too.”

“Why?” Sorn says. “I’m just a chef.”

“You’re impersonating  [ Chef Wong Kahei ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iCK_a7uFz8b0eIIAstwhiL_NvMExMIQKkk0q0LU43i01Izu9X-zYqUHvlDogzZVvagwY5jsoTkjEnUJ1Oh1Z7DX5E6BrXMXRmA=w720) , who has been paid off. Miss Wong’s hair is pink.”

Sorn had sworn to herself not to complain, but she can’t help but groan. “At least this won’t hurt my scalp. Do your worst.”

When Yujin is done, she steps back and nods. “You look good with pink hair.”

Sorn just groans again.

-

The Cube building looks intimidatingly tall and shiny from where Sorn’s standing behind it, peering up so far it hurts her neck.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” says the chef’s assistant from next to her, who either doesn’t notice the switch or is in on it. “One of the tallest buildings in the city. And we get to serve cake here.”

“Yeah,” Sorn mutters. There’s an awkward silence before she gestures to the entrance. “Uh, shall we?”

They load the still-covered cake in through a dirty back entrance and find the kitchens quickly; these, at least, are cleaner, and the cake looks good on a stainless steel countertop. Sorn pulls her hair back under a cap, careful that no pink strands escape.  _ Why did Yujin make me do this if nobody is going to see it? _

The assistant carefully takes the top off of the cake platter, and they stare at the cake for a moment. Chef Wong Kahei, Sorn admits, must be a good baker. The cake is in the shape of a giant cube, balanced precariously on one corner. It’s dusted all over with glittery blue powder, shaded delicately to add to the vision of depth. Sorn hasn’t seen the inside, but she knows it’s chocolate with raspberry filling. Of course, it’s not enough to feed everyone, but that’s where the smaller cakes come in- also cubes, but covered with pastel fondant and baked in five different flavors. They’ll be positioned around the room for people to try, but the main cake is for the most important guests.

It occurs to Sorn that if not for meeting Seunghee, she’d want to be doing something like this. That she could easily be Chef Wong or her assistant or one of the people who’d worked endless hours on these cakes.

“They’re beautiful,” says the assistant, staring at her pointedly. 

Sorn wonders if they’d tried to talk to her before, while she was lost in thought. “Oh! Yeah, they are,” she mutters. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” the assistant says, squinting at her. “The party is going to begin in about an hour. Would you like to, uh…”

Sorn tilts her head, confused. “Would I like to what?”

“Uh…”

“Oh!” says Sorn, understanding. Someone should have  _ told her  _ that the chef was in some sort of relationship with her assistant. “No, I, uh… I’ve got mouth fever.”

The assistant blinks. “Mouth fever.”

“Yeah!” Sorn is improvising on the spot, and she’s pretty sure mouth fever isn’t a thing. “My mouth feels all hot and itchy. It’s not contagious, so it’s okay to be here, but it’s really uncomfortable. There are, like, sores. But if you want-”

Wincing, the assistant surreptitiously slides away from her. “No, no, it’s fine. I appreciate you telling me.”

“Thanks,” Sorn mutters. “I’m going to… make sure we didn’t leave anything in the van.”

She slips outside before she can be questioned, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Her earring twinkles in the sunlight, and a voice comes through the hidden microphone system, inaudible to everyone but her. “Everything okay?”

Sorn exhales. “Yeah. I’m fine.”   
-

She spends most of the rest of the hour outside, talking to Yeeun at home when she can. If the assistant suspects anything, they don’t say it; by the time they’re loading the cakes into the ballroom, all ready for the party, all anxiety has evaporated.

Sorn knows what to do. She’s good at baking and she’s become used to lying, so she lets them inspect the cakes and her pockets without protest, all the while listening to her friends’ chatter in the earring earpiece.

“What do I do with this white powder?” Yujin says, presumably ready to free Seungyeon.

“You don’t, uh, enjoy cakes, right sir?” Eunbin sounds flustered- she must be in the middle of conversation. “Well, I’m sure that you’ve had some truly dreadful white cakes before, so we can’t touch those, but-”

Yujin laughs. “Noted.” There’s a rustling, and then a boom. 

Seungyeon’s voice enters the conversation. “Ah, free at last. Now to get to the-” 

There’s a sound of a scuffle through the mic. Sorn realizes someone is tapping her shoulder and whirls around, only to face a man considerably taller than her. “Chef Wong,” he says, and his smile seems almost full of teeth. “Your cakes must be excellent.”

"Thank you, sir,” says Sorn, hoping that this person isn’t anyone important. She scans the ballroom and spots Seunghee dancing with a shorter girl, leaning down to whisper something in her ear. Her eyes are fixed on Sorn, though, and that reassures her. 

Eunbin, by contrast, looks incredibly uncomfortable. A boy seems to be talking to her, and she’s pressed against the punch table, looking about ready to duck his head in the juice. She’s also looking at Sorn, but everything about her expression screams  _ Help me!.  _

Sorn almost laughs. “Excuse me, sir,” she says diplomatically. “I believe I’m needed in the kitchen.”

The man grips her shoulder. “You can stay. I would love to cut my cake now.”

_ His  _ cake. This person must be important, then. “Of course.”

Through the mic, Sorn hears more scuffling. “The prisoner has escaped!” someone calls. “They’re heading for the machine.”

“Shoot them!” cries another voice. Sorn sucks in an intense breath of air. 

“We’re waiting for the order,” the first guard snaps. “They’re wanted for questioning.”

In real life, the important man walks up to the table and taps a long fingernail on a glass.  _ He either doesn’t have a wife or doesn’t like her very much, _ Sorn thinks wildly. She’s panicking, a little bit, but there’s nothing to do. “We are gathered here to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our glorious company,” he starts, and the assistant brings out the cake. Sorn tunes out the rest of the lecture,  watching as a guard slips through the crowd and towards the person who must be the head of Cube. 

“They’re in trouble,” Seunghee mutters through the mic. “I can create a distraction if you’d like.”

“No,” Sorn says, not taking her eyes off Cube. “I got it.”

Eunbin has heard them, but she doesn’t answer- a shorter girl seems to have rescued her from the man and they’re talking more animatedly, but she appears worried.

“Who were you dancing with?” Sorn asks.

“An old contact of mine here,” Seunghee says, distracted. “Her name is, funnily enough, also Seunghee. Don’t worry.”

Sorn’s not sure what ‘don’t worry’ means, but she appreciates it nonetheless. “Just curious.”

Seunghee hums. There’s more crashing from Yujin and Seungyeon’s side, then static. “Are you sure you can make a distraction?”

Sorn thinks about poison. She thinks about how if you’re using it as a metaphor, it not only kills but corrupts- corrupts people, corrupts whole organizations like this from the inside out. She thinks about people who think they can own her power and kill her friends.

She thinks about murder. 

There are other methods than poison.

“Yes,” says Sorn.

Cube finishes his toast. The guard reaches his side. He’s halfway through a bite of Chef Wong’s cake, and Sorn  _ reaches _ from across the room. She feels the cake expand, harden, become shards of overbaked pastry choking the person who dares think he can take away the best thing she’s ever had.

Cube coughs, splutters, cannot breathe. There’s silence.

Then there’s an explosion.

-

The explosion is audible to everyone in the room, but it’s louder to Sorn, Seunghee, and Eunbin, who hear it through their microphones as well. The three lock eyes, and while everyone screams and fusses over Cube, they run.

Sorn sees Eunbin tear her arm from the shorter girl’s with a quick apology. Seunghee reaches her first and grips her hand like it’s a stress ball, guiding them out the door and down a million sets of steps. There’s a door that says it requires authorization; Eunbin reaches down her dress and tosses two vials at it, and the lock gives way with a soft boom. “No time for subtlety,” she yells at Seunghee’s raised eyebrow.

“There’s always a time for subtlety,” Seunghee yells back, but she runs through the door. Sorn doesn’t have as much stamina as the others, and she’s lagging. There’s a guard chasing behind them, cake still smeared on his face. She reaches again, and the cake seals itself over his mouth. He trips and falls into the door, and Sorn speeds up.

There’s another boom, and Yujin crashes face-first into Seunghee, who trips. “I used the white powder,” she blurts out. “I was getting desperate.”

Eunbin groans. “That one is the one that burns and releases toxic smoke when exposed to oxygen.” 

“You could have told me that!”

“Well, excuse me for not discussing bombs in front of some crusty man!” Eunbin snaps. “Where’s Seungyeon?”

“She’s fighting,” Yujin says.

“That’s helpful!” yells Seunghee, picking herself up. “How’s the machine?”

“We didn’t get to it yet. It’s just ahead; you passed the prison cells already.”

Sorn looks around. “Did we?”

“Yeah, you just weren’t paying attention,” Yujin says, raising a gun Sorn hadn’t noticed she had and shooting behind her. A guard yelps. “Now come on!”

They keep running, but Eunbin’s bomb seems to have knocked out the guards and no more conscious guards approach them. Yujin turns a sharp corner and nearly skids into a locked door. Sorn squints at it- it says that it requires fingerprint ID. “The machine’s past here,” she pants. “We opened the door before when we were caught. Why haven’t we all passed of toxic smoke yet, by the way?”

“I have no fucking clue,” Eunbin says, “and don’t worry, it won’t kill them all. I’m out of the acid-generating vials, by the way. I don’t know how to get through the door.”

Yujin winks. “Leave it to me.” She bends down next to the guard with the fanciest uniform and presses her thumb to his. There’s an awkward sound as Yujin’s thumb bubbles until the skin is molded into a different pattern. She touches the door and it beeps open. “There we go!”

“That looks painful,” Seunghee says, suddenly composed. Cautiously, she enters the room and peers around. “Seungyeon?”   


There’s a faint groan from the other side of the room. Seungyeon is buried beneath a lot of mechanical-looking rubble, but there are no guards. “I got the machine,” she wheezes. “It’s dead and gone.  The papers- they didn’t trust a computer enough to store the instructions there. I destroyed- the papers.”

Yujin kneels next to Seungyeon. “You,” she says sadly, “look like you’re about to die.” 

Yujin moves to get the rubble off Seungyeon, but she bursts out, “Don’t touch. The part on top- does the power sucking. I think it’s safe but I don’t-”

“I’ve got it,” Seunghee and Eunbin say at the same time. 

Sorn hangs back, wary, as they move just enough rubble to free Seungyeon. “It looks like we all have to escape out the window. The three of us can’t leave peacefully.”

“I hope Elkie has enough mattresses,” Yujin says ominously, then she peers out the window. “Oh, there she is.”

“Get in, fuckers!” Elkie yells from the river below- it seems like that’s her catchphrase. Cube’s building overlooks the river running through most of the city, and a fake funeral barge won’t attract much attention.

Sorn can’t help but think that maybe they should find a new escape method- this one is getting predictable. “It’s all of us,” she yells. “I hope you have enough mattresses!”

Eunbin frowns. “We have to explode the room,” she says. “Otherwise they’ll just put it back together.” 

Seungyeon looks around. “You can climb down the building easily a little bit, and then we can jump from there. Yujin and I will go first, because she’s the second strongest acrobat and I’m injured, then Seunghee, then- Eunbin, are your explosion devices edible?”

“If you try hard enough,” Eunbin says tentatively, “why?”

“No,” says Sorn, who’s figured out where this is going. “I can’t do it if they’re not actually edible.” She tries anyway, reaching towards the bombs Eunbin is setting up. She detects a trace of grease in them; oil she could manipulate. “If I move the fat-”

“That should do it, yeah,” Eunbin agrees. “So then I go and then Sorn?”

Seungyeon nods, already hoisting herself out the window. “Come on, Yujin. This is the best plan.”

“I hope she knows that I’m the leader,” Seunghee mutters, but she gestures for Yujin to follow. “Go on. We’re good.” 

There’s a banging at the door. Eunbin sighs. “Do you think that girl at the party will go out with an arsonist? She asked me to meet at the library.”

Seunghee and Sorn exchange amused glances. “As long as she doesn’t know it’s you, it should be fine,” Sorn tries. There’s a splash, then Elkie whistles from below.

Seunghee smiles at Sorn, and something about the smile catches in her chest and stays there. “I’ll see you at the bottom,” she says, and slips out the window.

“I’ve never even dated anyone,” Eunbin says ruefully before Sorn can consider the implications of Seunghee’s smile. “What if I mess it all up?”

“Sometimes you mess things up,” Sorn says. “And I guess that’s okay. As long as you fix them.”

“I sure hope I can fix my mistakes,” Eunbin mutters. Elkie whistles; her leg is already halfway out the window. “Thanks, mom!”

“How many times do I have to tell you- never mind.” Sorn shakes her head, amused. The door rattles again. Eunbin is taking longer; she’s afraid of heights, Sorn remembers. Maybe that’s why.

Elkie whistles, and Sorn exhales softly. They’re fifty or so feet up, but she remembers Eunbin telling her that someone survived a fall of twenty thousand feet before after being thrown out of their airplane without a parachute, and they’d only had a glass roof and not a mattress to land on, so she  _ should _ be fine. (Emphasis on should.) Carefully, she starts to lower herself out the window, and she sees what Seungyeon means- there are a series of ledges that probably belong to other rooms in the building that she can use to hop down further. But she hesitates before heading down, and that hesitation is the death of her.

The door bursts open. “Hey! What are you doing in here?” a guard yells, and Sorn doesn’t think. She just  _ reaches,  _ and there’s an explosion tearing her from the building, towards the ground.

It’s not the way she thought she’d die, but it’ll do.

-

She’s only vaguely aware of life moving outside of her. She hears Elkie saying something about how she’s a victim from the Cube explosion and they’re taking her to a funeral home. Someone asks for a license and the world fades again- Sorn wouldn’t be surprised if Elkie really did have a second job as a funeral barge driver. And why was someone moving? That was just her girlfriend, who liked to pretend to be a dead body… yes, it was fine.

Then someone’s lifting her up a flight of stairs, lying her down on a mattress, and then nothing.

-

Sorn thinks it’s rather fitting that she ends where she’d started- lying on a bed, Yujin hovering over her, recovering from an injury. Of course, this time she has all kinds of cuts from the explosion, not to mention that she’d fallen fifty feet, so it’s a bit worse.

“Are you okay?” Yujin asks, still hovering. “I fixed you up as well as I could, but you’re still-”

“On bed rest, I know,” Sorn mutters. She’d woken up an hour ago to excruciating pain and almost the whole house fussing over her. Yujin had sent them away, but Yujin had the energy of three people herself, which made her exhausting nonetheless. “Can I talk to Seunghee?”

Yujin winks. “Sure. Just don’t do anything too exhausting.”

“Why would I- never mind. I just wanted to know how everything went.”

Yujin is already gone, and Sorn is beginning to feel a headache joining her other problems. 

It doesn’t take long for Seunghee to come in, though. “Sorn?”

“Hi,” Sorn says, smiling faintly. It does not help her headache. “What happened?”

“The room exploded with you mostly in it,” Seunghee says. “Eunbin knows her bombs. It didn’t make the building collapse or anything. But you fell- really fast. We had to fish you out of the water.”

Sorn groans. “I didn’t know it was possible to break four ribs from landing on water.” She pauses. “Did- did anyone die?”

Seunghee hesitates. “Some of the guards- not directly because of us. The explosion and the smoke. But- I only think Cube was injured. If that’s what you’re asking.”

“It is,” Sorn says. “I don’t particularly care if he dies- just not directly because of something I did. Why didn’t the smoke affect us?”

“Eunbin thinks it was a stronger version of what we used in the prison breakout,” Seunghee says. “And because she’d drugged us to be immune to it before, it didn’t affect us now. Plus some more sciency things I didn’t understand. Also, Yujin says that she thinks she lost her fingerprint.”

This has the intended effect of making Sorn laugh. “How does one lose your fingerprint?”

“I don’t know,” Seunghee says, laughing too. “At least she has another thumb.” 

There’s a comfortable silence before Sorn ventures, “Hey, Seunghee? Can I still stay now that the heist is over? I know- I know I was here before, but just in case-”

“Of course.” Seunghee interrupts her before she can get any further. “I- you’re one of us. You can stay for as long as you like.”

Sorn smiles. She’s feeling her eyelids droop. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad that guy stabbed you,” Seunghee says quietly. “Not that you got hurt but- I’m glad you’re here.”

Sorn is mostly asleep, but if she had been awake she would have agreed.

-

Sorn had run away from home when she was nineteen.

When she’s twenty-two, she creates a new one.

**Author's Note:**

> i had to do SO MUCH RESEARCH FOR THIS all the climbing facts are bc if i had to suffer through/enjoy that information so do you  
> if you enjoyed or have critique, i love comments! i only bite sometimes  
> happy holiday season!!


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